Fall to light (A Virals Fanfiction)
by Sautisa
Summary: It's Tory's Birthday, there's one week left of school until the summer holidays and everyone Tory Brennan encounters seems to be acting a tad odd. Including the handsome but mysterious Ben Blue. What's with everybody? Or could this just be Tory's overactive imagination?
1. Chapter 1

**Virals Fanfiction – Fall to light**

**(A/N)DISCLAIMER: THIS FANFIC WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS OF THE FIRST 4 BOOKS IN THE VIRALS SERIES. I do not own the Virals series xD Kathy Reichs wrote these fantabulous books to go read them first and then come back! Also I haven't read the last book (Terminal) and I'd appreciate it if you didn't leave any spoilers in the comments! If you like this fanfic please leave a review and comment suggestions that could improve the story! I apologise in advance for any spelling mistakes. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 1**

I woke up to the sun streaming in through my window.

I sighed. It was going to be another long hot summer day. I looked at my alarm clock and saw that it was 6:00 am. I groaned and got up to get ready to go school. After jumping in the shower and getting dressed, I tried to run a brush through my red tangles. Brush. Rip. Pain. Brush. Rip. Pain. Yeahhh neat hair today is not possible. My locks picked the worst day to rebel. I was turning fifteen today. I'd told no one though, as I hated to be the centre of attention and just the overall fuss of birthdays. After many feeble attempts so fix the birds nest,I settled on a messy bun and followed my nose downstairs where I could hear the bacon sizzling in a pan and smell the coffee brewing in the kitchen.

A pink post-it note was stuck to the table. Everything was pink in our house these days, thanks to the blonde bimbo. A messy note was scribbled in sharpie:

**Hey kiddo, sorry had to rush to work. I'm needed urgently. Whitney is making you breakfast**_. __**Be nice**_ **-Kit**

"Tory is that you?!" A southern drawl yelled from the kitchen. "No I just happen to be a red head burglar who spent the night in Coop's bed!" I answered. "Always the jokester Tory!" she chuckled. Her sarcasm detector failing once again. Speaking of Coop, where was he?. "Hey Whitney have you seen Coop anywhere?" She paused her stirring and looked at me "He tried stealing the bacon so I locked him in the bathroom." She answered with a frown. What?!

"Now stop worrying about that mongrel and eat your breakfast dear before it gets cold." I narrowed my eyes and opened the bathroom door freeing my wolf dog. I patted his soft head and whispered "Next time forget the bacon and go for her leg" He barked as if agreeing and I winked at him.

I sat down and stuffed my mouth with the delicious food. Ah the bimbo was annoying most of the time, but man, she could cook. I checked the clock and jumped, the ferry to school left in 9 minutes. I kissed Coop on the head, grabbed my bag and jumped downstairs, "Bye Whitney!" I yelled while I ran downstairs, headed to the dock to meet up with the squad.

Well, most of the squad, since Ben now went to Wando High school. Man, I missed the days when we all were together all day, now the pack just felt…incomplete. I pushed all those thoughts aside and continued to walk to the docks. They looked pretty empty…where the heck was Tom Blue's boat? I checked the time 7:00 sharp. I was on time…so where was everybody?!

I opened my bag and reached for my cell phone, opening IFollow I could see that Hi and Shelton's icons were at Bolton Prep High school. They left without me?!, I was about to call Hi when I heard my name being yelled. I looked up from the screen and saw Ben Blue aboard _Sewee _racing towards me. "Tory! Toryy! Wait!" He quickly cut the engine and tied the boat. "Aren't you supposed to be in school?" I asked him with my eyebrows raised. "Nah, Our school finishes a couple of days early since its public, remember? The holidays have officially started for me."

Dammit, I still had a week of school left. "Oh, well do you know what happened to Hi and Shelton? I arrived here on time but they were just… gone" I asked him.

"Oh yeah about that...My Dad had to leave early this morning because of something at the LIRI, he's needed there apparently" He said quickly "I noticed you weren't on the ferry to school so I thought I'd pick you up" He smiled. I wasn't fooled though, something was off…I would have been notified if the ferry had to leave early.

Oh well, I'm probably just overthinking it. That's what solving crimes and being involved with traumatizing experiences did to you. And by "traumatising" I don't mean hearing Hi singing and dancing Gangnam style while wearing his monkey onsie. Though that was pretty traumatizing (I still had nightmares). I meant The Gamemaster and digging up dead bodies. "Thanks Ben" I said returning the smile.

At least someone was being nice to me on my birthday.

He looked handsome in the morning sun. His skin was a deep caramel colour a shade darker than normal, tanned by the summer sun. His hair was being swept around constantly by the wind so he had to run his hands through it to try and tame it. So sexy.

We hadn't really talked much recently; since Chance had dropped the news on us that he was a Viral too we had spent all our time trying to figure that out not sort things out between _us._

"You know what Tory? I have a feeling today's going to be a good day." He said while turning on the engine. That was a very non Ben Blue thing to say but he was probably in a good mood because of the holidays. I wasn't about to spoil his mood, the boy rarely smiled.

And plus a boat ride by myself with my crush? How could things get any better than that?!

"You know what? Me too,Ben."

We sped along the water on our way to Bolton, the sky was pure blue without a cloud in the sky and the sea was calm and clear.

Ben turned up the music station he had recently bought for _Sewee _with our loot from our recent Pirate adventure. Thanks again Anne Bonny. I recognised the song playing. R U Mine? By Artic Monkeys, I loved them. They just captured your feelings exactly.

As the chorus was playing Ben looked at me with a serious gaze that completely captured me. I forgot about everything around me and just drowned in his liquid brown eyes. He slowly made his way towards me, I returned the gesture we were so close…just a little closer…The boat suddenly lurched upwards and jumped, sending us tumbling apart. A wave. Seriously?What a way to ruin the moment.

Thanks Ocean. Anyway Kit would have probably killed me if he found out anyway. We awkwardly re seated again and didn't mention anything. Though we were both sporting blushes, it would be worse to talk about it.

We finally made it to Bolton where Ben stopped the boat and awkwardly smiled. "Thanks for the ride Ben" I said "Any time Brennan" He answered with a small smile. I was about to climb out. But…What the hell? I didn't want to be a tease so, before he could react I pecked him on the cheek and ran out of the boat towards the school. Before entering the building though, I quickly glanced at him. He was just standing there with a smile rubbing his cheek while looking blankly into the distance. That goof.

**(A/N Sooooo I hope you guys enjoyed that…Hopefully it wasn't too short, I will try to update soon! Please leave me comments I love to see feedback! Love you all and see you next time!)**

**Tune in next time to find out what's happening at the LIRI and why everyone is acting so odd…**


	2. Chapter 2

Tory POV

As I strolled into Bolton Prep's main building I checked the time: 7:30, I still had enough time to run to my locker before the first bell. I quickly grabbed my Algebra and History books. It boggled my mind how the school thought it was a good idea to have Algebra first period.

That's like an invitation to not pay attention. I closed my locker and frowned. Usually Jason would be here flirting with me by now. Great, another person who decided to bail on me today.

As I made my way to my first class someone slammed into my shoulder, redecorating the floor with my bag's contents.

I looked up to identify the culprit and to my surpise It was the new girl who had recently transferred here a couple of weeks ago.

I believe her name was Alice. She seemed pretty cute and nice. She had Long brown ringlets, big blue eyes that suggested innocence ,and her height was around the same as mine but she currently had a death glare pointed my way.

"Watch it _Bitch_" She hissed. Okay I take it back- not so nice after all. Jeez woman.Bitch? I didn't purposely slam into another girl did I?

"Excuse me but you were the one who bumped into _me._" But the comeback floated in mid-air as Alice had already stormed off.

Just as I finished repacking my bag, The bell rang. Great, just great. My next class was on the other side of the school and my Algebra teacher didn't have many positive feelings towards people who were late.

I sprinted to the Algebra room and silently attempted to slip in without being caught but nope the lady had the hearing of a bat.

"Victoria Brennan outside, you know my tardy policy" The class chuckled. Dammit. My face burned as I walked out to the dining hall.

I was rounding a corner when I crossed paths with a chubby kid wearing an inside out blazer. His face was scrunched up in concentration as he read a crumpled up piece of paper. "Boo" I said as I grabbed his shoulders and shook them.

Hiram jumped and attempted to strike a ninja pose but sadly, it didn't work out too well since he had a terrified expression on his chubby face.

"Tory! You were lucky, next time I might karate chop your arm off or do some serious damadge, never sneak up on master Hiram."

"Yeah yeah easy tiger. What have you got there?" I said while pointing to the piece of paper.

His eyes quickly widened and he shoved the paper down his pants. "Oh that..hehe that was nothing don't worry about it, just some…uh…manly stuff.." He mumbled.

"Oookayy. What are you doing out here anyway?" I said changing the topic,

"Yeah I kinda corrected a few hundred times. Turns out Gas laws aren't really her forte" He said.

I chuckled, "Ah Hiram, always a smartass."

We walked into the dining hall only to find a sign saying the tardy detentions had been moved outside due to the janitors needing to mop the floor.

Thank god. At least we didn't have to stay inside in the stuffy cafeteria that always seemed to have a fishy smell to it.

Me and hi made out way to the benches by the Lacrosse pitch where we could see a group of students huddling on one of the tables. The teacher in charge of us was dozing off on a chair with a battered paper back of Macbeth.

Me and Hi sat on an empty bench since most of the kids on the other one were popular and frankly we just wanted to chill for the hour.

I slipped on my shades and made myself comfortable. I had stayed up pretty late last night with the other virals discussing what we were going to do about the Chance situation and figured napping would be a good way to clear my head.

I closed my eyes and relaxed for about 5 seconds when the other table erupted into laughter. What in the world were they up to? I tried calling sleep once again but every time I came close to sleep they started laughing or just made a tremendous racket in general. I sighed and sat up. My faithful companion, Hi, was deeply asleep. Man, that boy dropped like a boulder.

I was contemplating whether to study or not, when an idea struck me.

I had to learn to get better at flaring and no-one, really was paying attention to me. Why not start now?

I concentrated on awakening the wolf DNA in me, inviting it to consume my body with energy

**SNAP**

The switch flipped in my brain and adrenaline coursed through my veins filling me with satisfying warmth.

Everything became clearer. I could read the ingredients on a sweet wrapper on the other side of the pitch and could smell Hi's deodorant. I focused and the conversations of the popular table and could make out Jason's voice

"-I'd definitely choose though. There's no way I would kiss . Her Mole looks like it has a personality." He chuckled.

"Okay next!" He paused as if thinking. "Lola, Truth or Dare?"

These kids were playing truth or dare right under the nose of a teacher. What'd they do? Slip sleeping pills in his coffee?

"Um…Dare." She answered

"Perfect. I dare you to go give Stolowitski a nice big sloppy kiss" I could hear the grin in his voice

"Aw come on that's not fair! That's like kissing a garden gnome!" She said

"We all sweared we would complete _all _the dares no matter how gross or hard they were." He said.

"Ugh fine." She responded while getting up from the table and walking towards us with her confident strut.

"Hey Tory" She greeted along with a false smile.

I was used to being hated by the local girls though. They were all just jealous of the fact that I could maintain a steady conversation with Jason without needing to unbutton my shirt or drooling like an idiot.

But frankly, for all I cared, they could have him. I wasn't very interested in The super hot captain of the Lacrosse team who closely resembeled a norse god.

He was a nice guy and all, he always defended me when the skanky Tripod decided to pick on me but honestly I wasn't interested in being more that friends, he was nice and laid back but he was no Ben Blue.

"Lola" I nodded in greeting.

She walked over to Hi and poked him in the shoulder. He jumped up, clearly startled. His cheeks were flushed, whether it was because of the beautiful girl acknowledging his presence or his recent nap, I couldn't be sure but he didn't try to hide his staring towards Lola.

She was pretty,with long blonde glossy hair an Green eyes but not pretty enough to be part of the Tripod.

She sure as hell tried to act like them though.

"Okay better get this over with then" She leaned down and full on kissed Hi on the mouth. The popular kids whistled and hollered at her. But Hi was straight up shocked.

His eyes widened and his face turned a deep scarlet colour. Lola pulled away, made a disgusted face and wiped her mouth. She then walked back to the popular table

Hi started talking but just ended up mumbling incoherently. I threw my head up and started laughing.

He ended up pinching himself and blinking a few times just to see it it was real. Then he cleared this throat and said "Look at that Tory! Another girl who has fallen for Hiram Stolowitski!" His voice injected with his usual confidence. Hiram recovered quickly.

"Hiram, the kids on the table to the left dared her to do it." I said rolling my eyes

"You just say that because you're jealous. But don't worry everyone can get a little Hiram" He said outstretching his arms with a grin that proved that he was completely serious

"Yeah yeah" I waved off his other comments

He looked me in the eye and said "Tory are you flaring?! In public?!"

"Chill Hiram, we need to practise and no one here is paying attention to us so why not?" He still wasn't impressed. "Plus we get to overhear the gossip from the game of truth or dare they're playing over there" I said.

That seemed to do it. "Fine, but just until they admit they all love me, then we stop. Capiche?" I nodded in agreement.

I watched as his usually brown eyes transformed into molten gold irises. "Man, I'm never going to get used to that feeling" He said while slipping on his shades.

I put a finger over my mouth and told him to zip it.

"Okay…Anna! Truth or dare?" Lola asked

"Truth" She answered

"Okay. Marry, Kiss, Cliff. Stolowitski. Devers and Blue." Lola said.

"Aw come on The island kids? No fair." Anna whined

"We have to keep it interesting don't we? Jason added to the conversation.

"Okay fine. Kill Stolowitski. Marry Blue and Kiss Devers." Anna replied.

I looked at Hi and raised my eyebrows.

"She's just scared of how much she wants me so she has to kill me." He said

This boy needed help, I swear.

"Okayy Jason. You did truth last time so now for your dare…" She looked in our direction. "I dare you to go kiss Boat girl over there"

Oh crap. Nonononono.

**SNUP**

My Flare died just before Jason could respond.

Me and Hiram looked at each other. "I say, let's bail."

"Come on Tory, Why would I break blonde Romeo's dreams?" Let it happen!"

Jason made his way towards our table and sat down next to me.

"Sup' Tor?" He smiled. "Hiram." He nodded in acknowledgement.

"Hey" I said nervously. I knew his intentions and let's say he always got what he wanted.

"So uh Tor, Forgive me will you?" He smiled

"Uh….for what?" I said. My eyes darting everywhere but his.

"For this" He said softly as he leaned in to kiss me

He was a whisper away.

Then a voice barked "Students go to your next classes. Mr. Taylor, cut that out and stop being cheeky."

Saved by the cranky sleep deprived teacher. Phew.

I quickly gathered my things and said "Shame Jason, we'll have to continue this conversation next time!" I grabbed Hi and dragged him away.

"Bye!" I waved over enthusiastically. Practically racing to my history class.

Hi whistled "Jeez woman, even _I _would let Jason kiss me. What's wrong with you? Are your lips not soft enough for Romeo?"

"Shut it. Stolowitski."

Nope he still wasn't done. He faked swooned. "But have you seen _his hair? _It's so fine, I bet it was made in heaven!" He puckered his lips and batted his eyelashes. "Forgive me Tory" He said in a fake deep voice.

I smacked him in the back of the head. Hard.

"Owww, what was that for?!" He said while rubbing his head.

"I believe I told you to shut it."

**(A/N Sooo I hope you guys enjoyed that, I tried making it a tad longer than last time! How are you guys liking the story so far? Please comment suggestions and things that I could to to improve my story. I love seeing feedback guys! I'll try updating as soon as possible.**

**Love you all!) **


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